This relates to something brought up in another thread. The a Sutta there is a story about a bhikkhu Godhika who kept reaching arahantship and then falling away from it so that on the 7th time that this happened he killed himself.

Isnt arahantship suppost to be permanent though, so how could someone reach it and fall away again six times? Any clarification on this would be greatly appreciated.

clw_uk wrote:This relates to something brought up in another thread. The a Sutta there is a story about a bhikkhu Godhika who kept reaching arahantship and then falling away from it so that on the 7th time that this happened he killed himself.

Isnt arahantship suppost to be permanent though, so how could someone reach it and fall away again six times? Any clarification on this would be greatly appreciated.

It was said that he achieved "temporary liberation of mind", or one or other of the higher superconscious states, but failed to gain final liberation because he was beset by illness.

3. Venerable Godhika while abiding diligent to dispel touched the release of mind in concentration. Then venerable Godhika fell away from that release of mind in concentration.
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I presume that "release of mind in concentration" is Jhana, a temporary release from the hindrances, not complete liberation. Similarly to the contemplation of mind states in the Satipatthana Sutta:http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .nysa.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

III. The Contemplation of Consciousness
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Herein, monks, a monk knows ... the freed state of consciousness, as the freed state;[19] and the unfreed state of consciousness as the unfreed state.
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[19.] Temporarily freed from the defilements either through the methodical practice of insight (vipassana) freeing from single evil states by force of their opposites, or through the meditative absorptions (jhana).

[quote=] There is a ‘fully enlightened being’ called an ‘arahant’, who is perfect - NOT

There is no such thing as an arahant who is completely different from ordinary people because he/she is perfect. The question of whether someone can be perfect is fruitless and unhelpful. Every person can move in the enlightenment direction, and away from the endarkenment direction. (It is probably better not to speak of ‘arahants’.)[/quote]

Arahants are perfect to the extent that they can no longer have mindstates that are based in greed, aversion or delusion. To think they can move in the "endarkenment direction" is therefore simply incorrect.